Category: "Rants"

Elder Scrolls Online launched their extremely controversial Crown Crates this week. After having followed this on the PTS and deciding to give it a shot with some of the Crowns I still had sitting around, I thought I'd share what I think about it and my experiences with it. I seem to have been particularly lucky, but the system definitely could use some major changes....

The Elder Scrolls: Legends, a mobile strategy card game, was announced at E3 this year. If you haven't seen the trailer yet, here you go.

As I said in my E3 post, I'm cautiously optimistic about it. I'm open to the idea of an ES card game, though I know that there's a lot that they could do wrong with it, but since we haven't seen anything else about it yet, it's too early to judge. Our page for it on the wiki is literally two sentences long because of the lack of information about it so far. And yet, most of the reactions I've seen online have been negative. That trailer above has nearly 75% dislikes - all because of a barely minute-and-a-half long announcement clip that didn't reveal anything about the game itself.

Here's some common complaints I've been hearing about it:

I was expecting an ES6 announcement! This is lame!It's a bit early to be expecting news of ES6, especially since they just revealed Fallout 4. It'll be a year or two, possibly more, until we hear anything; there was a five-year gap between Oblivion and Skyrim, and a seven-year gap between Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 (New Vegas was developed by a different company). Don't hate the game just because it's not what you expected.

They should be working on ES6 instead of this side game!This game is being developed by a separate company, Dire Wolf Digital, not Bethesda - just like Dishonored or ESO, and it's apparently been in production for a couple years already, judging by a comment I saw from one of the artists who was involved. Its production will not slow down ES6.

The art doesn't look like Elder Scrolls, just generic fantasy!Now, disliking the art is definitely a valid viewpoint - but just remember that we've only seen about six pictures that may or may not be in the game, and that the gameplay might be fun even if the art isn't what you like.

I don't mind it, myself; it reminds me of some of the concept art that we've already seen in other ES games, albeit more cartoony:

And remember, the art in each game and book changes to suit the atmosphere of the game. Some have more of a cartoon style, some are more realistic. Just because the art is different, doesn't make it bad! ;)

Case in point.

Side games ruin the series!I was surprised to realize recently, when counting all the side games, that there have actually been more side games than main-series games so far: Battlespire, Redguard, the three mobile games Stormhold, Dawnstar, and Shadowkey, and ESO. So far, the series has not been ruined - even when lore was drastically changed (for example, Khajiit were originally humans that legends said were descended from cats; Redguard turned them into literal cat people... although the main series has had its moments of retconning too - the Warp in the West, for instance). All in all, the side games, so far, have merely provided extra lore and given us something extra and fun between main games.Perhaps a more recent example to demonstrate this game's potential is not in Elder Scrolls, but in Fallout: the new mobile game Fallout Shelter so far has proved to be popular as a side game to the Fallout series, despite being an entirely different genre from the main series. Elder Scrolls: Legends may be the same: a fun little side diversion.

In summary:It's too early thus far to make any judgements about this game, especially negative ones, since we don't know anything about it. So far, all that is certain besides the fact that it's a card game is that it's a bonus game that we weren't expecting, that it's not slowing down development of ES6, and that it's free to play - and none of these are reasons to hate it.

I'm sure that opinions will change as we learn more, but until then, I think it's best to view it with neutral or even hopeful eyes until we truly know what the game is like.

You know what I hate? Complaining. Yes, I understand the intense irony of that claim, but it's absolutely true. I know that most of my blog posts are nothing but barely concealed rants about the smallest details relating to the series, ranging from complaining about swimming mechanics to lengthy tirades over a simple question, but that's not the kind of person I truly like to be. I don't like complaining about things I don't like, I think it's unhealthy for the mind to be focused on the negative. So in a daring move to free myself from these corrupting impulses, I spent the last few months meditating on any blog topic that would not revolve around some niggling little issue. So after that prolonged absence, I have returned with more minor issues to drone on about. Today, specifically on my mixed feelings about the twentieth anniversary of the Elder Scrolls franchise. See the rest after the break.

The International Business Times released a couple articles on the "ESO Bot Plague" and ESO news from E3. (edit- See comments; IBT is apparently rehashing a dated issue here)

ESO director Matt Firor wrote on their forums that the black market activity for the game accounts for about 85% of the customer service calls and emails they've received, and that they've been a little slow to dampen down bot activity. He apparently blames the "huge influx" of feedback about the black market activity for their slow response in dealing with the matter.

So, they haven't had time to make progress against bots, but Zenimax did find the time to make and release another trailer for E3. As far as I know, it doesn't really highlight new content, it's just a general "come see how good we look" E3 trailer (for a game which was released two months ago? Wut?). Turns out I didn't know far enough (wow, that phrase is a disaster). The video apparently focuses on content for small PvP battlegrounds.

Player complaints are surfacing that Elder Scrolls Online is "dead" (see Reddit). While exact figures are unknown, a substantial amount of players have let their subscriptions expire, the release of the Craglorn content was rocky, and players are finding it more difficult to find people to play with and enjoy their experience. Gaming commentators are starting to talk openly about how the game can be saved, which never bodes well.